


“Aimeé Lecosse, First Handmaiden in the Second Class for Padmé Amidala”

by Polgarawolf



Series: Star Wars: You Became to Me [18]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/F, Handmaidens, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Sacrificial ethics, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-15
Updated: 2007-10-15
Packaged: 2017-11-13 08:36:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polgarawolf/pseuds/Polgarawolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is fifteen random but chronological moments from the life of Aimeé Lecosse, who is, quite literally, the first handmaiden in the second training class of potential handmaidens chosen from among a large pool of applicants for the job for the newly elected Nabooian Queen Padmé Amidala. There is an actual story here – one small thread among the vast woven tapestry of life that is the living history of the galaxy, stretched out and twisted, knotted into the whole, curled down among the roots of time, connecting various moments together – but one must read between the lines to capture it. It is not precisely the truth, for the subtle story of these moments is sketched out here in words, and, in the sin of writing down a life, it inevitably changes the shape of things. But it is nevertheless a form of truth. (From a certain point of view . . . )</p>
            </blockquote>





	“Aimeé Lecosse, First Handmaiden in the Second Class for Padmé Amidala”

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** This story functions as a sort of compressed codex for Aimeé Lecosse’s life, as she is going to be written (or at least referred to) in my not even nearly complete AU **Star Wars** series **_You Became to Me_**. If anything doesn’t make sense, please feel free to ask!
> 
>  **Author’s Notes: 1.)** For anyone interested, this not-quite-a-story is compatible with my SW AU series **_You Became to Me_** , including my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, if you squint at a couple of things sideways and view a few others solely through the lens of Aimeé Lecosse’s eyes. **2.)** Although this is technically modeled on a prompt set that I borrowed from somewhere or another on the LJ (I really don’t recall from where anymore, precisely, though if someone would like to set the record straight, I’ll add the info for the community in question here in my notes), it’s not really meant to function as a response to whatever the challenge actually is that’s associated with said LJ prompt set. I just used the specific prompts to give me a reason to string together a backstory of sorts for Aimeé. **3.)** Readers might want to consider the fact that Aimeé, like a lot of native Nabooians, is fairly strong in the Force, but that she hasn’t received any training whatsoever to speak of and so has no real conscious control over that sensitivity to the Force. **4.)** Readers interested in knowing who the physical models are for original characters like Aimeé should please consult the latest versions of my posted lists of cast original and EU characters and for handmaid(en)s and other important Nabooian characters, which are available on my LJ! For clarity's sake, though, please keep in mind that Aimeé is modeled on a teenaged Miranda Cosgrove. Also, please note that characters who may be alluded to but not referenced by name (certain family members of original characters, for example) are considered too minor to be cast at this time, and readers should feel free to imagine them howsoever they wish! **5.)** Handmaidens often tend to pair off, as is the case here, with Aimeé Lecosse and Justé Talant, a fellow handmaiden from the same training class (hence, the relationship label for original female characters and the underage warning). **6.)** Speaking of pairings, I've labeled this to indicate Padmé Amidala's love for Sabé , because, even though it may not be specifically mentioned in this character study piece, handmaid(en)s know so much about their sworn Lady that readers can be certain that Aimeé, like all the other handmaid(en)s, would have surely known about how much Amidala and Sabé love one another! 
> 
> **Story Notes:** **1.)** Since this is part of a larger on-going AU series that in some respects fairly closely mirrors or follows events of canon (up to a certain point, anyway), readers should please keep in mind that certain characters and events from the prequel movies/novelizations of the films and even events/places/people referenced in the EU or Expanded Universe may be mentioned or alluded to in this story. If anyone has any questions about whether someone or something is AU, canon, or EU canon, please feel free to ask! **2.)** Readers should probably be aware that I am roughly estimating (guestimating might be a better word) the original publication date for most of the character study pieces in the **_You Became to Me_** series (and indeed most of my stories, especially the ones written over a long period of time), based on when I roughed out notes for them in the story notebooks I carry everywhere with me and when I can recall having worked on certain groups of characters. The year is going to be accurate, but the month might be off and the day will almost certainly be randomly chosen, since the online account I had originally posted many of these stories to no longer exists. I tend to go back and edit things that are in series whenever I get the time or a new idea causes me to have to make room for something else plot-wise, and odds are good that a story could have been edited for typos as recently as the day of its posting here, but the original version will likely be much older and fairly close to the publication date that I attach to it, if anyone's curious!

**“Aimeé Lecosse, First Handmaiden in the Second Class for Padmé Amidala”**

 

 **01.) Asset:** It’s not so much that she looks like the new Queen, really – she’s well aware of the fact that her resemblance to Amidala is superficial, at best (her face being too round, her features not refined enough, her mouth too wide and too full, her hair too dark and too straight, and so on), though of course this does not mean that she cannot make herself look more like the Queen, if she wants to, given enough time and resources, including plenty of cosmetics and the proper kind of elaborate costume – but more that she has talents that will make her an asset amongst the handmaidens, having majored in political science and diplomacy and law at school and being, moreover, a skilled dancer with an eye for fashion and a knack for sewing that (thanks to the money she made from selling some of her creations) helped her through a couple of the leaner seasons, when her family otherwise might have had to go without to pay for all of her books, and so she’s not terribly surprised to be told that she’s a shoe-in for the second handmaiden class after her first interview.

 **02.) Middle:** Her parents don’t really want her to seek after a handmaiden position, fearing the amount of danger she’ll be in, but she is a middle child, absolutely not willing to marry soon or for security of home and comfort, and she is passionately committed to the realm of politics, and so (in her mind, at least) there’s never really any question as to whether or not she’ll accept an offer, if it’s made.

 **03.) Commitment:** Captain Panaka frankly strikes her as a man much more (far too much!) interested in receiving praise for his cleverness and laudations for his greatness than someone truly dedicated to his work; Sabé and the other handful or so of principal handmaidens more than make up for his lacks in their commitment and zeal and love for the young Queen they are sworn to serve, though, so she finds his presence among the Queen’s guard more annoying (as he clearly doesn’t deserve his position, with such an attitude!) than unsettling.

 **04.) Worship:** Three thousand years or so ago, back when the Nabooians were more obvious and religious in their commitment to the ideals of growth and love and light represented by the Great Lady and so commonly observed many far more ritualistic aspects of worship, instead of just keeping certain traditions and holy days sacred and otherwise simply living their everyday lives according to the spiritual tenets and beliefs of their faith, there was a strict list of vows sworn to by the formally titled acolytes (chosen companions and handmaidens, guardians and helpmeets, all rolled up into one) of the monarch, and she can tell that Sabé, at least, is quite serious about reviving the tradition pretty much wholesale – not just in paying the old custom lip-service in order to surround the Queen with overdressed soldiers and overpriced ladies-in-waiting – and so she quietly chooses to write on the subject for one of their individual projects, making sure to thoroughly analyze each individual section of the vows and make possible suggestions for logical updates and modifications to them, based on what seems most likely to bring the handmaidens together as an organized and truly dedicated force.

 **05.) Offer:** There’s a girl in the training class with her (with lovely skin like the lightest shade of caramel and a brilliant smile) she’s caught watching her, a few times, and, when this girl (Justé Talant) quietly offers to treat Aimeé’s hair so that it is closer to the Queen’s more medium shade of brown rather than near-black and completely natural looking in its lighter hue (with even her eyebrows being made to match), she thinks it over for a time, and then she accepts the offer and seals their tentative alliance with a soft kiss that soon grows into something much more.

 **06.) Example:** Justé looks no more like the Queen than she does (which is to say that she can, if fitted out with some of the identical robes meant for the handmaidens and a judicious amount of carefully applied camouflaging cosmetics, easily help to fill out the ranks of the handmaidens and confuse the eyes and senses of others by appearing to be so like her fellows that they can all blend together into a group so similar that it’s individual members fade into a faceless crowd, seemingly so alike and so uniform that they appear no more remarkable than any other part of the background, and so help to protect the Queen with anonymity), but her devotion to the Great Lady is like that of an old-fashioned priestess, and she is both very smart and willing to work hard to learn all that she can, to make herself a better, more useful handmaiden for their sworn lady, and Aimeé frankly rather believes that there are those who could do far worse than to seek to follow Justé’s example.

 **07.) Wardrobe:** Saché and Yané are largely in charge of wardrobe, both for the Queen and the handmaidens (though of course most of the Queen’s elaborate costumes are designed and made by a team of specialized dressmakers and jewelers chosen and carefully vetted by Eirtaé, Sabé, and Amidala herself), but there are occasional questions and options among their less physical instructional sessions as well as assigned projects dealing with costume design and jewelry, and she is quietly, endlessly pleased when some of her notions make their way into the proposed wardrobes both for them, as handmaidens, and for the Queen and her principal decoys, to help draw attention away from the individual bodies and towards the all but overwhelming splendor of the costumes and jewelry being worn.

 **08.) Opinion:** There’s a girl in their class who worries Aimeé, not only because she personally finds her too lazy and self-centered for a life in political service to the people but because she’s heard that Sabé thinks there is something mentally/emotionally wrong with her, too, and Justé seems to share the opinion, having admitted more than once to feeling unsettled and anxious and even sometimes vaguely (and otherwise inexplicably) nauseous in Essé’s presence, as she has before only in the presence of a tried and confirmed killer, and so Aimeé makes it a point to watch this girl, so she can hopefully do something to help get her out of the program before anyone can get hurt either by or because of her, Panaka’s insistent support for Essé or not.

 **09.) Chosen:** Despite her red hair and green eyes, Dané is the handmaiden most likely to be chosen from their specific training class as a decoy for the Queen, for her facial features and build and overall passion and intelligence and mien are most like the Queen’s, and so she makes it a point to do whatever she can to encourage the other handmaidens to draw in about Dané and to treat her as the head of their little coterie-in-training.

 **10.) Family:** The Trade Federation’s increasingly belligerent tone towards Naboo and the plasma trade worries her deeply, enough that she quietly sends word to her family that they need to make plans to be able to go to ground, if the worst (as she can imagine it) should happen and the Trade Federation makes an attempt to overthrow the Queen and seize control of their plasma mining operations by force, and even more quietly suggests to her fellow trainees (Essé excluded, for she cannot bring herself to speak to the girl outside of classes, disliking the bad feeling she gets whenever she’s around Essé and her flat, dead, unfeeling blue eyes) that they should probably think about doing the same, for their loved ones, if they haven’t passed on such warnings already.

 **11.) Active:** Under less potentially dangerous circumstances, their training would last for at least two full months (approximately fifty to sixty days on Varykino plus at least two to four weeks at the Palace, simply observing and getting some more hands-on practical experience, before finally starting a rotation of fully operational duty) before they began active duty as handmaidens; with a third class of potentials already finalized and waiting to start their training and the situation getting worse as the Trade Federation becomes more and more openly prone to using violent force, though, she considers herself lucky to have gotten even a full month of instruction.

 **12.) Worthy:** Most of the girls in the first class of handmaidens were apparently either deliberately recruited, for their political ties and knowledge of both the noble class and workings of the royal court and of protocol and law, or else chosen for a combination of skills and intelligence and resemblance to the Queen, and she is pleased beyond words to find that most of her predecessors are more than worthy of that honor, though she’s also horrified to find that two of their number seem to be more like that Essé character than the Queen for anyone’s peace of mind, and so is sorely tempted to try to find a way to file a complaint against Panaka that will get that damned idiot off of the advisory board that interviews and chooses the potential trainees out of all the various applicants.

 **13.) Evidence:** She and Justé discuss trying to find a way to get close enough to Lietté and Roché to gather evidence of their (obvious) unfitness for their positions, as handmaidens to the Queen, but Sabé seems to know what they’re thinking and takes them aside to warn them off, assuring them that she and the other principal handmaidens are aware that there’s something badly off about those two and that they are keeping a close eye on them, already, and that there’s no need for her and Justé to perhaps endanger themselves doing what others already are, so she makes sure Sabé knows what little she and Justé have already observed about not only those two but Essé as well, and they agree to let the matter go . . . at least for the moment.

 **14.) Comfort:** The Great Goddess alone knows how many plans the Trade Federation’s sudden attack is derailing, but she takes some comfort, at least, in the notion that anything Lietté, Roché, or Essé may’ve been scheming has been as thoroughly stopped as Sabé and the others’ attempts to get those troublesome individuals out of the handmaiden program.

 **15.) Choice:** The Princess of Theed is not their sworn lady, but with Amidala attempting to flee to Coruscant, to plead their case before the Senate, the people of Naboo will need someone to rally behind, and Ellie is logically the first choice among those available to serve as such a rallying point, so she doesn’t hesitate to throw herself between the escaping Princess and the thugs and droids and traitors all trying to capture her, and she is smiling grimly (inordinately pleased with Ellie’s escape) when she is finally cut down.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Clarification Note:** One of the reasons why my AU **Star Wars** series _**You Became to Me**_ is so entirely not even nearly complete has to do with the fact that I really started writing at the wrong end of the prequel trilogy for an AU (in my defense, though, when I started what became my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, which is over a million words long, I thought I was doing a sort of one-shot fix-it based on an idea I got for "fixing" RotS by changing something that happens very near the end of James Luceno's EU novel _Labyrinth of Evil_ , which is set immediately prior to RotS). One of these days, I fully intend to rectify that problem by going back and starting from the beginning, with an AU rewrite of TPM, which is why I took the time to do a character study sketch for a supporting character like Aimeé. She'll be showing up again, in a more prominent role, whenever I get around to that AU rewrite of TPM. Folks might want to keep that in mind when reading this, since technically this is spoilerish for an AU novel that I haven't gotten around to writing yet!


End file.
